Cigarette positioning ash tray



Oct. 31, 1961 s. P. GARSON 3,006,349

CIGARETTE POSITIONING ASH TRAY Filed March 31, 19 58 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 sq FIG fig 2 96 .4 2

INVENTOR. STANLEY P. GARSON Oct. 31, 1961 s. P. GARSON CIGARETTE POSITIONING ASH TRAY 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 31, 1958 IN VEN TOR.

STANLEY P. GARSON United States Patent 3,006,349 CIGARETTE POSITIONING ASH TRAY Stanley P. Garson, 168 Boston St., Apt. 9, Seattle, Wash. Filed Mar. 31, 1958, Ser. No. 725,353 4 Claims. (Cl. 131240) This present invention relates to the general art of ash trays of the type having perforated tops and more particularly to an ash tray which is so arranged that cigarettes dropped on the same tend to rest in a substantially radial position to the end that the cigarette is held in a position to preserve it in a most smokable condition. a

This present ash tray is arranged with a large 11 ber of fairly large perforations formed in a substantially conical ash tray top or cover member. The various perforations are preferably arranged so that they tend to provide substantially radial channels so that cigarettes normally will lie substantially radially on the top of the ash tray.

In use, the ash trayprovides a metal resting place for a cigarette which is of sufficient body to serve to conduct the heat away from the cigarette and extinguish it. When the cigarette burns down, the ashes as they are produced, fall through the openings into the storage chamber below the perforated cover.

A principal object of my present invention, therefore, is to provide an ash tray that has the various desirable attributes of a screen top ash tray and which enjoys the benefits of this former construction but which can be produced much more economically.

A further object of this present invention is to provide cigarette lodgment portions of the metal which are displaced during the perforation operation and arrange these upstanding metal portions in furrow-like lines so that the cigarettes will be positioned in an arrangement that is substantially radially disposed with respect to the perforated surface of the top plate of the ash tray.

A further object of present invention is to provide an ash tray that will provide suflicient heat absorbing metal in the screen on which cigarettes rest, so that the heat of the cigarette will be conducted away from the same and the cigarette will be extinguished thus eliminating one great fire hazard of cigarette ash trays.

Further objects, advantages and capabilities will be apparent from the description and disclosure in the drawings or may be comprehended or are inherent in the device.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of a preferred form of my ash tray.

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary sectional view illustrating the manner in which the lower end of the cigarette is arrested from forward movement by the engagement of a met-a1 abutment formed at the time the perforations are made in the form of screen shown in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is *a fragmentary w'ew illustrating the manner in which the lower end of the cigarette is arrested from forward movement by the curvature of the perforated screen and the abutment presented by the lower edge of the perforation engaged in the form shown in FIG. 5.

FIGURE 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a preferred form of my ash tray, made in one of its simplest forms.

FIGURE 5 illustrates a simplified form of perforated plate with the means employed to hold it in position of use.

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view as viewed along the line 66 of FIGURE 1.

The two species in this case are species I illustrated in FIGURES 1, 2, 4 and 6 and species II illustrated in FIG- URES 3 and 5.

3,006,349 Patented Oct. 1961 Throughout the drawings, in which like numerals designate like parts, the numeral 10 designates respectively the base portions of two species of my ash tray as illustrated in FIGURES 4 and 5 respectively. The base may 'be produced of metal or molded from plastic or ceramic material. It is desirable that it provide in both species a storage chamber as 12 or 13, species I and II as illustraded in FIGURES 4 and 5 respectively of suflicient depth so that cigarette stubs and the like can lie under the apex portion of a typical screen 14 or 15, species I and II as illustrated in FIGURES 4 and 5 respectively and will not be readily visible as the ash tray is normally viewed from the top. In one form, as shown in FIGURES 1, 2, 4 and 6, a screen 14 is formed by providing a plurality of regular shaped openings 20, each having an upstanding metal portion, as the bar 16, of sutficient size to provide a cigarette end abutment. As shown in FIGURE 1, the bars 16 are desirably positioned with their longitudinal axes disposed substantially tangential to concentric circles, such as the concentric circle a portion of which is shown in phantom and identified by the numeral X. The center of these concentric circles such as the circle X is the center of the screen 14. Moreover, it is preferred that the bars 16 which span the openings 20 divide these openings into two substantially equal smaller openings, these smaller openings being identified in FIGURE 1 by the numerals 20 and 20" respectively.

The form of perforated plate 15 illustrated in FIG- URES 3 and 5 consists of a substantially conically formed plate of the same general form of the other type illustrated in FIGURES 1 and 4, but with this arrangement there is no upstanding portion 16. The virtue of this modified form is that it can be very cheaply produced and serves to screen the debris in chamber 13 and provides a means for stopping the cigarette from going deep down into the screened area, as will be noted in FIGURE 3 where the cigarette C engages the downhill margin portion 31 of the hole 30.

In order to accommodate my perforated plate screen to various types of materials, particularly those used in the base portion 10, I have illustrated in FIGURE 4 a screen unit 14, preferably made of sheet metal, having a complete cover of one piece of metal including the peripheral rim with its downwardly extending portion 32. This is arranged to rest on an annular ledge 34 formed in base portion 10 and this indicates that the material from which the base is made must be capable of accurate molding or economical machining.

In FIGURE 5, there is shown a very thin, shaped screen of a material that is resilient such as sheet metal so that it may be distorted and snapped into the annular groove 44 formed in the rather substantial bezel portion 46. This method of seating screen portion 15 is somewhat similar to the manner in which plastic watch crystals are fitted into the watch bezel.

Method of use Referring to FIGURE 1, it be noted that there has been shown on the drawing a plurality of dashed lines 50. These represent the outlined engagement lines formed by the raised portions 16 after the showing of FIGURE 6. Here it will be noted that a plurality of the raised bars 16, when disposed as illustrated in FIGURE 1, will outline a groove and when a cigarette comes to rest on the bars 16 forming the groove, it will be held in a position which is substantially a radial one as indicated by lines 50. This is a desirable positioning of a cigarette in that the mouthpiece end 52 is in the free air and will not be contaminated by coming in contact with any of the debris that may have been previously left on the surface of screen 14.

This ash tray has been found useful to persons who smoke at their worlg and many times are quite careless in disposing of their cigarettes. If such a person, however, will develop the technique of dropping his cigarette so that it falls free, with the coal end of the cigarette coming first in contact with screen 14 or 15, it will be found that the cigarette will normally come to rest in a substantially radial position. This is apparently due to the fact that the end of the cigarette will "be arrested by coming in contact with the wall 31 of the hole 30 of screen 15 or the bar 16 of screen 14 and the upper end of the cigarette will cease to tend to roll after ithas reached a radial position. This is found to be true of the very simple form as shown in FIGURE 5. For a more fastidious smoker, who likes to place his cigarette more carefully, it is desirable to have the upstanding metal portions 16 in the form shown in FIGURES 2 and 6 and to have these upstanding portions arranged in the substantially radial lines as indicated in FIGURE 1. Such an arrangement insures the positioning of the cigarette on the sloping rest area 36 and contributes to the fire safety of this ash tray.

It is believed that it will be clearly apparent from the above description and the disclosure in the drawings that the invention comprehends a novel construction of cigarette positioning ash tray.

Having thus disclosed the invention, I claim:

1. A cigarette positioning ash tray, comprising: a base portion having -a bottom and an upstanding rim adapted to form in coaction with said bottom a storage chamber for the reception of ash, cigarette butts and the like; a downwardly dished sheet metal cover screen of substantially conical form provided with a plurality of openings; upstanding metal bar portions spanning said openings and 4 dividing said openings into smaller openings on opposite sides of said bar portions, said bar portions extending upwardly above the surface of said cover screen and adapted to form lodgement means to assist in the positioning of-cigarettes and means for positioning said screen on said base portion. 7

2. The subject matter of claim 1 in which: said bar portions are of substantially rectangular cross section and attached to said screen at each end only.

3. The subject matter of claim 1 in which: said bar portionsare disposed with their longitudinal axes dis posed substantially tangential to concentric circles having the center of said screen as the center of said concentric circles.

4. The subject matter of claim 1 in which: said openings are spanned by a single metal bar portion dividing said openings into two substantially equal smaller openings.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS V D. 32,672 Weiser May 15, 1900 307,742 Bloch Nov. 11, 1884 1,829,844 Altrnayer Nov. 3, 1931 1,845,522 Rowley Feb. 16-, 1932 2,193,486 Litschgi a Mar. 12, 1940 2,199,205 Litschgi Apr. 30, 1940 2,574,813 Oardrain Nov. 13, 1951 2,786,476 Garson Mar. 26, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 4,421 Great Britain 1915 

